1877

Guide to the Collection

Restrictions on Access

The original sketch book has been removed to Special Collections. Photocopies, microfilm, and
digital images are available for use by researchers.

Collection Summary

Title:

Book of sketches made at
Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla.

Dates:

1877

Physical Description:

1 volume in a
case

Call Number:

Special
Colls. Making Medicine

Call Number:

Ms.
S-56 (photocopy)

Microfilm Call Number:

P-245, 1 reel

Repository:

Massachusetts Historical Society

1154 Boylston StreetBoston, MA 02215

Abstract

This collection consists of a book of hand-colored sketches made by
Making Medicine and others, including Bear's Heart, Buffalo Meat, Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe, and Koba,
Cheyenne Indian prisoners at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida.

Biographical Sketches

Making Medicine (1844-1931)

Making Medicine (Cheyenne name: O-kuh-ha-tuh, or "Sun Dancer")
was a Cheyenne warrior who became one of the most prolific of the Indian artists at Fort Marion
and first sergeant of the company of guards there. When the Fort Marion prisoners were released
in the spring of 1878, Making Medicine went to New York to be educated in the Christian
ministry. He took the name David Pendleton Oakerhater after the family that sponsored him (the
family of Senator George Pendleton), was ordained an Episcopal deacon on 7 June 1881, and
worked as a missionary among the Plains Indian tribes for many years.

Note: Oklahoma State University has digitized many items related to
David Pendleton Oakerhater at: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Oakerhater/index.html.

Bear's Heart (1851-1882)

Bear's Heart (Cheyenne name: Nockkoist) was a Cheyenne Indian
warrior. After his release from Fort Marion, he attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute in Virginia and worked as a carpenter on a reservation in Oklahoma. He died of
tuberculosis.

Buffalo Meat (1847-1917)

Buffalo Meat (Cheyenne name: O-e-wo-toh) was a Cheyenne warrior
and later a deacon in the Baptist church. He died of tuberculosis.

Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe (1856-1888)

Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe (English name: Boy Hunting, a.k.a. Edwin Dunmoe) was a Kiowa warrior who
served as quartermaster sergeant of the guards at Fort Marion. After his release, he attended
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia and Carlisle Indian Industrial School in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1880, he worked briefly at the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, D.C. He returned to the Indian Territory as a Presbyterian missionary in 1888.

Co-hoe (1853-1924)

Co-hoe (English name: Broken Leg) was a Cheyenne warrior who attended Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute after his imprisonment at Fort Marion.

Koba (1848-1880)

Koba (English name: Wild Horse) was a Kiowa Indian warrior. After his release from Fort
Marion, he attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, worked on a farm in
Massachusetts, and studied to be a tinsmith at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. He died of tuberculosis on a trip back to Indian Territory.

Tsait-kope-ta (1852-1910)

Tsait-kope-ta (English name: Bear Mountain) was a Kiowa warrior who later took the name Paul
Caruthers.

Howling Wolf (1849-1927)

Howling Wolf (Cheyenne name: Ho-na-nist-to) was a Cheyenne
warrior who was appointed sergeant of the guards at Fort Marion. When he was released in the
spring of 1878, he intended to remain in the east to continue his education, but his eyesight
was failing. After undergoing unsuccessful treatment in Boston, he returned to Indian Territory
and rejoined his people on the reservation. Disillusioned by the poverty there, he spoke out
for the rights of Indians and against the encroachment of Anglo-American culture, including the
implementation of the Dawes Act in 1887. He died in a car accident.

Francis Parkman (1823-1893)

Francis Parkman was a Boston historian and Harvard professor who traveled extensively in
North America and Europe. His books include The Oregon Trail
(1849), The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851), and
France and England in North America (7 vols., 1865-1892). He
lived with the Sioux Indians for a few weeks in 1846.

Collection Description

This sketch book of Indian ledger art contains hand-colored sketches made by Making Medicine
and others, including Bear's Heart, Buffalo Meat, Etah-dle-uh Doanmoe, and Koba, Indian
prisoners at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. Indians prisoners, primarily Cheyenne and
Kiowa, were held at Fort Marion for almost three years in an effort by the U.S. military to
prevent further Indian uprisings after the Red River War of 1874-1875.

Also included in this collection is a map by Howling Wolf, sent as a message to his father in
the form of a picture map on a postcard, of his voyage from Fort Marion to Savannah, Ga.

Preferred Citation

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the
Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons,
organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Persons:

Bear's Heart, 1851-1882.

Buffalo Meat.

Doanmoe, Etahdleuh, 1856-1888.

Howling Wolf, 1849-1927.

Koba.

Subjects:

Cheyenne Indians.

Drawings.

Fort Marion (St. Augustine, Fla.).

Indian art--North America.

Indian captivities.

Indian ledger drawings.

Indians of North America--By name--Bear's Heart.

Indians of North America--By name--Buffalo Meat.

Indians of North America--By name--Etahdleuh Doanmoe.

Indians of North America--By name--Howling Wolf.

Indians of North America--By name--Koba.

Indians of North America--By name--Making Medicine.

Indians of North America--Florida--St. Augustine.

Maps, Manuscript.

Notebooks.

Prisoners--Florida--St. Augustine.

Encoded by Laura Wulf and Susan Martin, May
2010

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